Our Summer in Rome
Romans 12:9-21
“Paul’s Be-Attitudes”
Have you ever gotten so angry at your boss or superior that you wanted to walk out the door or at least find some way of retaliation? I had a boss in the horse business who took credit for everything good that happened in our stable, but I never heard him take any blame for anything bad even when he was obviously in the wrong.
I read about a young research chemist, a Ph.D. candidate, who had spent three years separating a certain substance into its components. It was excruciating, tedious work, done for starvation wages. His egomaniacal adviser demanded top billing when the important research was published. Having done all the work, the Ph.D. candidate balked at giving his adviser top billing. The adviser wouldn’t yield, so the young chemist took the two flasks of separated compounds and poured them together—yielding them useless. The phrase, “all that work down the drain” was never more appropriate. Have you ever felt like doing something like that?
Once Chicago Cubs outfielder Andre Dawson paid a $1000 fine for disputing a strike called by umpire Joe West. To be belligerent and get the last word, Dawson wrote on the memo line of his check: “Donation for the blind.”
Perhaps there’s someone here this morning who has gotten fed up with someone at their work, or on a ball field, or even at church and wanted to strike out at them. Maybe you got to the point where you didn’t think you could takeit anymore. Have you ever felt that way? You don’t have to raise your hand. Has anyone ever gotten fed up with your spouse—keep your hands down, ladies. With one of your offspring, or even a parent?
In the only recorded sermon we have from Jesus, His Sermon on the Mount [Matthew 5-7]; we have what are called the Beatitudes, or what I like to call the Be-Attitudes.
These verses [5:3-12] can be understood in at least four ways: [1] They are a code of ethics and a standard of conduct for all believers. [2] They contrast kingdom values [what is eternal] with worldly values [what is temporary]. [3] They contrast the superficial “faith” of the Pharisees with the real faith that Jesus demands. [4] They show how Old Testament expectations will be fulfilled in the new kingdom. The Beatitudes are not multiple choice, as if you could pick what you like and leave the rest. They must be taken as a whole. Jesus perfectly exemplified them, and we must aim to live as He did.
Each beatitude tells how to be blessed by God. Being blessed means more than being happy. It describes the fortunate or privileged position of those who belong to God’s kingdom. Jesus wanted His followers to know that God’s kingdom is organized differently than worldly kingdoms. In the kingdom of heaven, wealth and power and authority are unimportant. The first and primary quality needed is humility, recognizing your need for God. Kingdom people seek different blessings and benefits than people of the world, and they have different attitudes. Do your attitudes reflect the humility and self-sacrifice of Jesus, your King? [Matthew 5:3-12]
You won’t find this in your study Bibles, commentaries, or other reference material. If you were a disciple of Paul you probably would have never heard these words come from his lips or have read them in one of his letters. I am calling these words from our lesson this morning, “Paul’s Be-Attitudes.”
Some call them “twenty-one rules for Christian living.” The dominant theme being the application of love in human relations.
My Spiritual Coach refers to our text this morning as the “Jesus Manifesto.” He writes that there are thirty-nine commands in thirteen verses. Comparing them to Old Testament Law there’s not so much “thou shalt not” as there are “you must do” marching orders. [Copies of the manifesto are available at all exits]
But, we are warned that you and I have no hope of obeying these thirty-nine commands unless we grasp what we learned last Sunday from verses 1 & 2 of this 12th chapter. Verses 3-21 are the cart while verses 1 & 2 are the horse. And we know what happens when we try to put the cart before the horse.
“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will” [Romans 12:1-2].
Last Sunday we learned that in the matter of transformation, the mind is the real battleground. The mind is where the enemy will attack first. The heart
will follow the mind. The focus of our eyes will follow the fixation of our hearts. All of that is the pathway to the offering of our physical bodies. All of this is what it means to be spiritual, to worship God in spirit and truth. This is what we are made for. This is who we are becoming.
Our problem is that we want to ask the question, “What are we supposed to do?” and skip over the most crucial matter, “Who are we intended to become?” [Believing and Behaving vs. Beholding and Becoming]. We want to put the cart before the horse. “Being transformed” leads us to the ability to “test and approve what God’s will is.” And then we are to do it!
The word for love in verse 9 is agape, a word that appeared first in the Greek of the Old Testament and was adopted by the New Testament to denote an energetic good will or a love that chooses its object with decision of will so it becomes a self-denying or compassionate devotion. It is a relationship that existed between Father and Son. It was expressed to man as the redeeming love of God and of Christ. Then it becomes the distinctive peculiarity of the Christian life in relation to others. Finally, it is the believer’s relation to God and Christ.
Hate is an emotion we can’t help. Hate is a feeling we cannot overcome. If we hate someone, it’s because we just can’t help ourselves. We’re human. We have no choice but to hate. That’s a lie! Unfortunately, it’s a lie manypeople believe. They believe this lie in order to excuse their hatred. After all, if we can’t help but hate, if hate is a feeling we simply cannot help, then hatred is never our fault, is it?
But we can help it. Hatred is a choice. We choose to hate, just as we choose to love. Oh, I know there are people out there who believe love isn’t a choice, that love is primarily an emotion, a feeling, a stirring in the loins. These are the same people who stay married for six months, then divorce. These are the people who love the idea of love but seem unable to stay in it. Love is a matter of will—something we decide to do. Love is a choice.
Most of us have learned how to be courteous to others—how to speak kindly, avoid hurting people’s feelings, and appear to take an interest in them. We may even be skilled in pretending to feel compassion when we hear of others’ needs or to become indignant when we learn of injustice. But God calls us to genuine love that goes far beyond pretense and politeness. Genuine love requires concentration and effort. It means helping others become better people. It demands our time, money, and personal involvement. No individual has the capacity to express love to a whole community, but the body of Christ does.
We can honor others in two ways. One involves ulterior motives. We may honor our bosses so they will reward us, our employees so they will work harder, the wealthy so they will contribute to our causes, or the powerful so they will use their power for us and not against us. Another way involves God’s path of love. As Christians, we honor people because they have been created in God’s image, because they are our brothers and sisters in Christ, and because they have a unique contribution to make to Christ’s church. Does God’s way of honoring others sound too difficult for your competitive nature? Why not try to outdo others in showing honor? Put them first!
We must be careful not to hold on to our anger. I saw a story about a 28-year-old man who accidentally blew up his kitchen just after Independence Day.
This gentleman had spent the night of July 3rd celebrating with a group of friends. This group, “who had been drinking heavily,” were shooting fireworks off for several hours disturbing their neighbors who called the police.
Someone in the group attempting to hide the stash of fireworks from the police, stuffed them into the oven and then forgot about them. About 3am the homeowner decided to bake some lasagna and turned the oven on. “It blew the kitchen all apart,” said authorities afterward. “The walls were all blown out, the oven flew right through one of the walls. Flying glass caused some slight injuries, but otherwise no one was hurt.
Rather than holding on to our anger we should find a way to channel it into something positive. We should learn from our anger and use it not to destroy the person we think has harmed us but turn it into something that betters our life.
When Muhammad Ali was a child in Louisville, KY, his parents gave him a brand-new bicycle. Proud and happy, he parked it outside a gym one day. Then somebody stole it, and it just about broke Ali’s heart. Someone told him there was a policeman in the basement. Ali told the policeman that he was going to find the guy who’d stolen his bike and beat him up. When the policeman discovered that Ali didn’t know how to fight, he offered to teach him. That’s how Muhammad Ali got into boxing. He never found the thief. But from that day forward, he says, every time he got into the ring, he looked across at the other fighter and told himself, “Hey, that’s the guy who stole my bicycle!”
Love must not be limited to those from whom we expect can do something for us. It must be shown to all men. Last Sunday I shared about the parable of the workers in the vineyard. When the owner went to pay them the ones who worked just an hour got paid the same as those who worked all day. Those who worked all day were mad. The first time I read that parable I agreed with those who had worked all day. But one day I finally got what the parable was saying, what Jesus was saying. In the kingdom, in God’s kingdom, we are all equal. On earth as it is in heaven!
The Christian isn’t in the business of revenge. The believer knows that God is the “Keeper of Justice.” Vengeance is God’s prerogative. He will take suitable action at the proper time and in the proper manner.
One afternoon a man went to his doctor and told him he hadn’t been feeling well. The doctor examined the man, left the room, and came back with three different bottles of pills.
The doctor said, “Take the green pill with a big glass of water when you wake up. Take the blue pill with a big glass of water after you eat lunch. The just before going to bed, take the red pill with another big glass of water.”
Startled to be out on so much medicine, the man stammered, “Golly Doc, what’s my problem?” The doctor replied, “You’re not drinking enough water.”
I seem to be at that age that every time I go to the doctor, they give me a new prescription for something else. I used to be so proud of myself for requiring no medication. Now, I take a pile of pills in the morning and another pile at night. When I go out of town I have to load up a pill organizer to take, sometimes two. Everybody knows me at the Walmart Pharmacy.
The reason for the prescription humor is that today’s text is a prescription on how to fulfill last week’s text. If we were talking about cooking, this would be the recipe. If we were talking about building, this would be the blueprints. But since we’re talking about the Great Physician, it’s our prescription for Holiness; our prescription for living a life “holy and acceptable to God.” The Jesus manifesto.
Eastman First Methodist Church 